


Notes on "I Shall Bind You with Chains of Need"

by DaltonG



Series: Orion Bound [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: author's notes, story notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 16:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1824775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaltonG/pseuds/DaltonG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Plans for the future of <em>Orion Bound</em>, discussion of story creation and reference links, and acknowledgements.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notes on "I Shall Bind You with Chains of Need"

We made it! They survived!

 

**What’s next?**

Will they return? Probably. We’ve got some questions to answer. How will The Avengers go on missions with Tony needing to stay within 3 days of Steve, and Phil and Clint needing to stay 3 days of each other? How exactly does the semen need to be delivered? Must it be ingested or can it be applied just to the skin to do its life-saving work? Does Fury know yet? And what about Rizzo? Is there more to the little rat than meets the eye? (Answer: why yes!)

However, “Orion Bound” will likely be on hiaitus for a bit. I may write a bit of fluff for a break. Also I have the real-life impingement of finishing up a master’s degree before the state-mandated seven years runs out in December, and full-time (super-stressful) work, and a disabled spouse, and delightful two-and-a-half year old nieces, and varying mildly disabling conditions of my own, and two podfic projects. So, y’know, one or two distractions. But Phil and Clint in the “Orion Bound” ‘verse are very much on my mind and will most likely be back, and if you have suggestions I’m listening. I appreciate those of you who have come along on the ride and who have had patience as I’m learning the craft of writing.

**On the lack of notes, and some links**

You may have noticed that I like to be tight-lipped and mysterious in my notes. So this is where I let out all my jibber jabber! I actually did a little research for this fic. Let’s have a few reference links: 

* How Phil and Clint got a fetish for back beating: [mangrove swamps](http://www.tarleton.edu/Faculty/dekeith/mangroves.html) (from chapter 2)

* Figuring out _where_ they got their back-beating fetish (ie, where do they have mangrove swamps that there might be a S.H.I.E.L.D. op?): [Meinmahla kyun wildlife sanctuary - Myanmar](http://www.asterism.info/parks/meinmahla/) (from chapter 2)

* Trying to understand what the NYC sewers might smell like: [smelliest block](http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2011/smelliest-block/) (from chapter 5)

* How I figured out what kind of ship Clint might sign up on: [Life on board a cargo ship](http://www.freighterexpeditions.com.au/life-on-board-a-cargo-ship) (You can actually sign up for a “cruise” on one of these!)

* What Clint used to throw life boats at the hapless S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the water (because give Clint something he can aim, and he’ll get it where it needs to go!): (1.5 mins, sound not required, SFW) [Line throwing apparatus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqZaa8En1EE) (thanks to spudqueen, as always, for fantastic maritime advice

* The lube Clint found in the alley: [Aquaslip](http://www.shopsailing.co.uk/index.php/carlube-m-49)

(why yes, I’m a library and information science student, why do you ask?)

**Why “Rizzo”?**

It’s a pun. There is a character in _[Midnight Cowboy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064665/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_64)_ named Ratso Rizzo. Rizzo is a rat. Get it? I’ve never actually seen _Midnight Cowboy_ because it sounds too depressing.

**On writing**

I learned a lot writing this fic. I kept thinking it had to go a certain direction, and then I wouldn’t want to write that direction, I’d think it was tedious, and I’d sigh, and it would feel like a chore. And then I’d remember this is for fun, and I’d be driving to my partner’s house in the city—evidently that’s when I do a lot of my writing—and I’d suddenly realize what should happen instead. In fact I got really mad at Clint when he up and zipped out of their apartment before Coulson could explain what he had done. It was supposed to be a little three chapter fic! Coulson would tell Clint what he’d done, Clint would hug him and be tearfully grateful that Coulson loved him enough to do something so drastic, they’d have loving sex, the end.

It’s really fun when weird stuff like that happens and your characters develop wills of their own.

As the battle was raging, and I needed Phil to get the semen into Clint and take care of him, I wrote a half-chapter that was kind of stilted and then needed to continue it by having the battle go on and Tony blow up the Kaiju-bot and the poor Helicarrier go down and then someone needed to rescue all the agents and whatnot, and it just sounded like such a chore, and Phil and Clint weren’t going to have any privacy, and it all just made me feel so tired. And then something clicked and I realized the whole battle could finish up offscreen, and I was so happy. Writing can be so neat!

Someone on tumblr plaintively asked the universe “How are you supposed to write?!” or some such and I obnoxiously replied “You just see the story as a movie and write it down.” And the truth is, that’s what my writing process is right now. I have all the mechanics down because I’m older than dirt and I have a fantastic beta who catches the many, many, MANY mistakes I make. (Let’s not talk about all the continuity errors I need to go back and fix before Dammit_Clint came along.) So right now, when I need to figure out the story, I really do just watch it play out in my head like a movie, and then I write it up. And I still sometimes get surprises when it finally gets “on paper” (I actually technically write on Google Docs), but the gist has been watched, in my head, like a movie. Dunno if that helps any of you budding writers.

If you’ve been reading fic for a while and you’re feeling the urge to write, and you have plot bunnies hopping around your feet, please carve out a little time for yourself, sit down, and give it a try. It can be so satisfying. Dare to put it up on AO3 and try not to have any expectations for kudos or bookmarks or whatnot. Most of us on here are pretty gentle with our comments, and as a new writer you just might not get a lot of notice at first. But the only way you get good at this is by trying, like I am. I know I’m not that good yet. But I also know the only way to start getting good is by doing it, over and over and over and over, and by making sure I do what feels right and what I enjoy. Yeah, there are parts that are hard and take discipline. But if I don’t enjoy the story—if I don’t love my characters and care about their fates—if I don’t feel passionate about what happens next—then no one else will. And why waste my time and yours.

There, that’s my pep talk, to you and to me.

**Kudos**

Thanks go out, as always, to [Dammit_Clint](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dammit_Clint/pseuds/Dammit_Clint) who has tirelessly waded through some pretty raw drafts and made them so much better with grammar and content critique. Thank you so much, darling.

Thanks also to [spudqueen](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spudqueen/pseuds/spudqueen), who helped with encouragement throughout, for random word and content consults, and with specific marine suggestions near the end from her distinguished service to us all in the US Coast Guard.

Thanks to my partner, R, who also helped with random walking-talking-thesaurus consults, and who listened to several chapters read out loud in service to my vanity despite the damage to his delicate sensibilities and his boredom at hearing about all the angst and the asses. (He’s not homophobic, he’s quite bisexual, he just thinks male asses are unlovely. He’s wrong, of course.)

Thanks to all the wonderful writers of Phlint fic. As I’m recording [podcast chapters](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1133298/chapters/2290637) of [unpossible’s](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unpossible/pseuds/unpossible) story _[What the Deep Heart Means](http://archiveofourown.org/works/945951/chapters/1846669)_ , I realize that that story had a heavy influence on this one. [scifigrl47](http://archiveofourown.org/users/scifigrl47/pseuds/scifigrl47) has been a major influence on my Phlint headcanon; if you haven’t read the glorious saga _[In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury)](http://archiveofourown.org/series/18228)_ , you really are missing out. Some of the headcanon about Clint, in particular, comes from the incredibly heavy, touching story [”Hollow Your Bones Like a Bird’s”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/632488/chapters/1144220) (heed the warnings in the notes). And having just re-listened to [shell’s](http://archiveofourown.org/users/shell/pseuds/shell) [fantastic reading](http://archiveofourown.org/works/833715) of [nerdwegian’s](http://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdwegian/pseuds/nerdwegian) [”Never Sold a Lie”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/799264), I realize that that too has made up some of my headcanon. I read a LOT of Phlint, so I’m sure I am leaving out some major influences. I invite you to have a look at [my bookmark list of Phlint recs](http://archiveofourown.org/bookmarks?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&bookmark_search%5Bsort_column%5D=created_at&bookmark_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=257188&bookmark_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&bookmark_search%5Bquery%5D=&bookmark_search%5Brec%5D=0&bookmark_search%5Bwith_notes%5D=0&user_id=DaltonG).

And finally, thanks to YOU, my readers, for putting up with an erratically updated WIP!!! _**You make it all worth doing.**_


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